First-half run lifts Exeter girls lacrosse past Nashua North
The Exeter High School girls lacrosse team knew there were a handful of Nashua North players it’s defense had to watch out for during Wednesday’s game.
NASHUA – The Exeter High School girls lacrosse team knew there were a handful of Nashua North players it’s defense had to watch out for during Wednesday’s game.
But instead of shutting those Titans down with lock-down defense, the Blue Hawks kept the ball to themselves.
Exeter closed the first half by scoring seven unanswered goals in the final 11 minutes and maintain possession for large chunks of the second half to beat North 20-10 in a Division I game at Stellos Stadium.
The Blue Hawks won 65 percent of the draws, including seven of eight during their 7-0 run in the first half. Jennifer Rogers led Exeter (4-3) with six goals and two assists, and also teamed with Carly Pierce on the draw, while Ana Toomey also had six goals and a helper.
“We had good success with Rogers on the draw,” Exeter co-coach Mike Boyle said. “She was getting quite a few of those, and in the girls game, those are super important. We were getting a lot of groundballs, too.”
Katrina Pietz added two goals and an assist for the Blue Hawks while Shannon Bucklin and Anna Dishart had two goals apiece. Pierce had a goal and an assist while Alyssa Pietz also scored, and Cammie Lavoie and Marie Smyth combined to make seven saves.
North got five goals from Danielle Upton while Gabrielle Masseur had three goals and four assists. Kaylee Hubbard and Julia Gagnon chipped in with a goal and an assist each.
“The first half was beautiful,” North co-coach Karen Gagnon said. “They played hard, and I don’t know, they ran out of steam, I guess.”
After falling behind 4-1 and 7-2, the Titans (3-3) were able to rally, scoring three straight goals to make it a 7-5 game with 12:00 left in the first half. But Exeter won the ensuing faceoff, raced down the field, and got a goal from Toomey to go up 8-5 with 11:06 to go.
That started the 7-0 run for the Blue Hawks, which included a stretch of three goals in 1:15, to take a 14-5 lead into the half.
“That was really big,” Toomey said of the run. “We know North is a good team and they can score goals right off the bat. We really tried to settle it down on offense and run the time down. After the half, we figured out what we needed to do and what we needed to change. It was good to get that lead.”
North got the first goal of the second half, and was able to cut the lead to 15-7, but Exeter scored three of the next four goals to go up 18-8 and start the running clock with 15:54 to play.
“It’s super important for us to, when we got to seven or eight goals, not be nervous again,” Boyle said. “They could come back at any time, so it was important for us to keep getting some balls in the net. All in all, it was a great team effort on offense, defense and the midfield, getting hold of the ball.”
